E-mail dated 12/11/11

Kia Ora,

So this week has been a really good learning week. I was able to go on trade-offs with the Zone Leaders on thursday. I was leading my area. This trade-off was to see if I am ready to train. This new program, called train the trainer, is crazy. We have an extra hour of study every day to make sure I'm prepared to train. My companion thinks I''m ready. I wonder what the Zone Leaders think. We were able to teach this new family. They are keen as to read the Book of Mormon and Pray. L, the husband to P, who we are teaching, is really keen and came to church yesterday. It was amazing. We think he really liked it because my companion and I spoke in sacrament and when we talked to him after, he told us that he really liked it and had this big smile on his face. Another miracle that Elder Whaanga and I experienced yesterday is that we were being fed by a member yesterday night but they needed us to pick it up. The only problem was that we didn't know where they lived. We had to call our bishop because the number we had for them wasn't working. Our bishop gave us an address. It was 2/35 H Dr. There are 2 streets that have very similar names. One is H Dr. and the other is H Dr. South. So he left off the south part but we didn't know so we go to H and get to the house and we look at it and were a bit put off by the way the house looked. It had broken windows and a car in front that looks like it hasn't moved in 100 years. We were starting to think that it was a typo in the message because there was only a 35 H not a 2/35. We were about to go when all of a sudden the gate in front swung open because of the wind. I said to my companion half joking, "I think that is a sign from God to go talk to them." When we went to the door and talked to the guy he was a 29 year old guy and Elder Whaanga asked him, "Have you ever heard of the Book of Mormon." He then has us wait for a second as he goes to get something and come back. He came back with a scripture case in his hand. He told us how his uncle was a member and how he already has a Book of Mormon. He saw the changes that his uncle made in joining the church and was interested. It was a miracle. We now have a return appointment. His name is K. Yeah its an interesting name. My comanion and I also had a talk about things that I could work on. I'm really trying to make myself better. I was going to let this be a surprise but I have given up cracking my knuckles. I stopped like 2 weeks ago. It wasn't that hard surprisingly. The only food I don't like hard out is Kina. That stuff is really not that good. I was trying not to gag as I swallowed it. It's basically a sea urchent tongue. Oh and I like fish now, but not crab meat. It is pretty weird having it being warm during this time of year. For Christmas, we're going to have a barbeque with a member and we are going to have breakfast with R and A. I'm so excited! Oh and you didn't tell me that Haley is getting married but I did already know that from Gram. I didn't, however, know that Justin and Jeff were getting married. (Mom needs to add for reader sake they are not marrying each other) That's crazy! Sounds like everything is going great back home. Keep up the good work!

Ofa Atu,

Elder Lee

P.S. I attached a picture of our recent convert, Jermaine Reihana. He is Venessa's son and he just got baptized this last Saturday. It has been another great week.

Email dated 12/04/11

Kia Ora Everyone,

How are you all doing? I have had a good week this week. We have been working really hard at being exactly obedient so that we can be blessed with miracles. We were able to teach a new family the restoration this week. We committed them to reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. When we went back a day or two later one of them read and prayed and felt good about it. We feel really good about this family but they need to come to church. We have also been trying to teach this other lady and her family but she always seems to be tied up with the kids and wants to do it another day. We have also been teaching our recent converts. R just got called as the YM secretary. He is truly amazing. L is doing really well. She goes to choir practice and is going to feed us on Wednesday. She also is trying to get her children to sit down with us to learn. V and her kids are doing great. J (her son) is getting baptized this Saturday and he is so excited for it. We are also trying to teach the rest of her kids but one of her daughters is afraid of gettting baptized because she is afraid of deep water. It has been a good week but I'm looking forward to a better week this week. Oh also, I would like some different shoes to play sports in because the Merrels are hard to play basketball in, but I'm in no rush so don't worry about it it its too much of a problem. Oh and this last week I got a really nice $200 jacket. I got it for $60! I would like to get you all some christmas presents but I don't know what you all want. Also, Dad, I meant to write it in the last email but Happy Birthday last Wednesday! Sorry I didn't get to say it last week. Hope you all are doing well. Please let me know if you have any questions for me because I can't remember half the stuff I want to tell you when I write these emails.

Talk to you next week!

Ofa Atu,

Elder Lee

Email dated 11/27/11

Kia Ora,

So this week was a really good week! I baptized L.R (One of our investigators). Her and J just got baptized on this last Saturday. Here are some pictures. We have another baptism coming up this Saturday. His name is J. He is V's son. We also have two new investigators. One's name is M. She is only like 18 but she attended her friend's baptism and she wanted to learn more. We taught her the resto and then invited her to read and pray. She has been reading and she finds it interesting. We are also teaching this lady named N. She is a Fijian and she is open to everyone coming around but we also taught her the resto. She has committed to reading and praying about the Book of Mormon and we're going to follow up with her on Thursday. All of our investigators are amazing. We have been teaching people like crazy. We have at least 20 lessons a week with members present. I love missionary work. Elder Whaanga and I fasted yesterday for a miracle. After church my companion went and talked to a lady right outside the church while I was sorting out the Membership records. He told me that she seems golden and we are going to teach her tonight. I hope and pray that we can have another miracle. I love to hear about everyone's week and I do want to see pictures of the house now. Also, if Mom or Dad could send me my line of authority it would be much appreciated. This is all I can think of right now. Love you all!

Ofa Atu

Elder Lee

Email dated 11/20/11

Kia Ora Everyone!

I had my first baptism the other day. We then gave him the Holy Ghost yesterday and then we gave him the Aaronic priesthood. I ordained him to a priest as well as baptize him. My companion gave him the Holy Ghost. It was quite nerve racking but it was really good. He is so funny. The next class after sacrament he said to me you know what the first thing I'm going to do with the priesthood is? Baptize Jack! (His dog) I started to laugh and corrected him, but I have to go.

Ofa Atu

Elder Lee

Email dated 11/14/11

Kia Ora,

I am doing well. I am going to have my first baptism (I will be baptizing R) and V will also be baptized this Saturday but she is going to be baptized by a ward member. The way the time difference works is we are 5 hours ahead on the next day from you guys, I believe. We had a really good week though. We were able to get 9 people to church yesterday and 4 of them have baptismal dates and the others will hopefully this week. There will be the two baptisms this Saturday and then two the next Saturday. Hopefully we can keep it consistent and baptize weekly. My companion keeps telling me that everyone here is expecting a lot out of me. He says that I came pre-trained and that he trains people to be successful. I hope I can live up to everyone's expectations. Oh and I do not have a
Thanksgiving here. And what are Granddad and Grandma doing there? How come no one tells me things like that? I don't even have their email. Thanks again for everything, everyone.

Gram- My P-day is on Mondays which is your Sunday. It is 11 in the morning here right now. Thank you for the story again though. I like those. LOC stands for Law of Chastity and WoW is Word of Wisdom.

Mom- I did receive both of the packages and I just need to remember to bring my camera with me to the cyber cafe place we go to for emails. Also, I will take any extra Halloween candy you want to send. Especially Reeses because we don't have those here.

Dad- Stop hurting yourself!!!!

Ofa Atu,
Elder Lee

Email dated 11/06/11

Disclaimer- we were sending his email at the same time we received this. The daylight savings threw us off.

Kia Ora Everyone,

I'm going to guess that everyone was super busy this week because no one emailed me except my friend who is on a mission. I'm doing well though. Just thought you all should know that our investigators are doing well. We are about to have 5 set for baptism for this month. We already have V set for November 20th, J set for November 26, L set for November 26, and we are about to set R and A for the 26th. It is amazing! L is a Maori lady and she is very interested in learning about what the Mormons are all about. She read in the Book of Mormon and she is continuing to read and we asked her to pray about it. She is going to. She seems to understand everything that we teach which makes it a lot easier. The key to missionary work is to be yourself and be friends with them. J is 17 and we took him to a baptism and he felt overwhelmed by the Spirit and now he is preparing to be baptized. He is awesome. R and A are doing great. There was a period when Elder Whaanga and I were getting worried that they weren't progressing but then we had a lesson with them and asked them," How since we've been coming over has your faith in Jesus Christ grown?" It was truly inspired. They opened up and then the lesson we had after that was amazing. We talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and R said he wanted to be baptized soon and he asked me if I would do it, that way it would be a new experience for both of us. They are amazing. They keep committing themselves to living the gospel. They committed themselves to LOC, WOW, and now baptism. Another key to missionary work is to use the members of the ward so Mom and Dad, I hope to hear about how you guys are helping the missionaries next time. All of our main investigators came to church this last Sunday and it was amazing because it was fast and testimony meeting. The Spirit is so strong during those meetings. My companion and I are still getting along great and we are pushing each other to become better missionaries. Missionary work is great!

Ofa Atu,
Elder Lee

Email dated 10/31/11

Kia Ora,

So it sounds like things are going good back home. Things are great here. Everything is still going great here. Everyone is still progressing. We had dinner with A and R this last week and it was amazing. We had a really good spaghetti and some carrot cake for dessert. I love them because they are so awesome. J is awesome as well. He asks all these questions and we are able to answer them and he just understands everything and is able to answer a lot of questions in church. He is so good. V wasn't able to come to church yesterday because she was sick but we were able to see her still and she is still doing great. My companion and I went on trade-offs a lot this week but one of those days he and the companion he had for that day gave her a priesthood blessing to heal her throat and after the blessing she stood up and was healed. It's amazing the power of the priesthood. We also just started teaching this guy named M. He is Croatian and he is learning Spanish for his partner in Chile. He is really time conscious. He records music and we got a cd of his. He plays the trumpet. We didn't get to teach him that much but we taught him the first half of the Restoration. We gave him a Book of Mormon and asked him to read and pray about it and he said he would. Everything is going great though. Mom- I got the package this last week but I didn't understand the card because it said that there were some usb's enclosed but there weren't any in it. I was just a bit confused, but thank you for the things that you sent. They don't have reeses here. Hope everything is well with you all.

Ofa Atu,
Elder Lee

E-mail dated 10/24/11

Kia Ora Mom and Dad,

So it sounds like Brandon is doing well with missionary work. He will be so prepared for when he goes on his mission. Seriously, going out with the missionaries helped a lot. I think that you teaching the gospel essentials would be great. If you ever need any help just ask the missionaries because they know their stuff, and just be prepared to answer questions because that's all that the gospel essentials teacher here does but then again he is also the ward mission leader. Oh and I haven't gotten the package yet because it takes close to a month for packages to get here. It takes 2 weeks to get to New Zealand and another week to actually get to me. No, I don't wear any hats. They are not allowed but I can wear sunglasses in the car. That's all though. Yes the weather is getting warmer here. I'm almost to the point where I can wear a short sleeve shirt everyday. Our investigators are good. We now have 7 investigators and it is looking like they will all be baptized in November. R and A came to church for the second time yesterday and they seemed to enjoy it and they are still interested in learning more which is great. V and 4 of her 6 children (2 of which are younger than 8) also came to church yesterday and she is totally set to be baptized on the 19th of November. She really wants the blessings of the temple and be able to be sealed to her family for eternity. Her kids are awesome. They are so energetic and really funny, and will most likely be baptized on the same date as their mom. We are also teaching a 17 year old guy who has so many questions. He came to church yesterday as well and he asked so many questions and really liked it. He is going to mutual on Thursday which he will enjoy. Everything is going great here. Love you all.

Ofa Atu,
Elder Lee

E-Mail dated 10/17/11

Kia Ora

Things are going great! The people we met last week are doing awesome. They came to church yesterday and we plan to go see them tonight at 7. They have so many good questions. My companion and I are totally going to baptize them. Also, I got to set another lady to be baptized on the 20th of November. I'm so excited. Her name is V and she is about 36 (I don't actually know) but her children were taken from her and now she is trying to change to get them back. She loves her children so much. She is doing great though. We are also teaching these people named A and V. V is a less active and A is not a member. She wants to be baptized but can't be until she gets married or V moves out and they have a child together that is about 3 months old. They are awesome. She loves to read the Book of Mormon and learn. The weather is ok. It change every day. You can never tell when its going to rain but it rains almost everyday but not always for very long. It's not quite warm out yet. It is some days but not always. My flat is ok. It's really dirty from the last missionaries but it's ok. My companion is awesome. We get along so well and he's the district leader so we are busy all the time. My area is only the West Harbour ward so not that big because its mostly city and we have a car. It's great. I'll definitely put on weight because we have the car and because we get fed so much. We get fed by members every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday and it's always a lot. The food is pretty good so far. I haven't had anything that I didn't like so that's good. I love serving a mission. It's so much fun. I already have a really good reputation. My companion says I'm going to make him famous because he is my trainer. It's funny as. Oh and that's a saying here. The people here say things are cool as or funny as or small as. It just means really cool or funny or small. Church was awesome because we had R and A there and we got to get up and bear our testimonies. Oh and my favorite meal was this dinner I had last night. It was this chicken fettucini and a bunch of other stuff like salad and fried potatoes. It was great, and there was this pie afterwards that was good as. It was a Fijoa and apple pie, and the ice cream here is amazing. But sounds like life back home is good. Hope everything is well.

Ofa Atu,
Elder Lee

E-mail dated 10/10/11

Kia Ora Everyone!

Today is Monday the 10th where I am. I'm a little surprised I didn't have any new mail but that's ok. I've been hard at work this last week since I've gotten here to New Zealand. The first day was pretty cool. I first had to experience an Air New Zealand Flight. It was awesome. There was plenty of leg room and the food was really good. I slept for a majority of the 11 hour flight and the rest of the flight I was eating. After that we went through customs and went and met the AP's and President and Sister Lekias (pronounced Leaky S). We then went to the mission office and got all of our forms and orientation taken care of. During the orientation we had to go out and do what we call Preach By the Way. This just means going and talking to everyone on the street. We're supposed to Preach By the Way in everything we do. Our Missions goal is for each companionship to talk to 150 people at least each week. This is surprisingly easy. We also have a goal of saving 204 souls for this month. This just means baptizing. We have been so busy everyday, it's kind of nice to have a little bit of a break even though its not really a break. We have found a few people to teach. We found this guy named R who is awesome. We found him by Preaching By the Way. He said he was looking for direction in his life and then we talked to him. We got to go teach him and his wife and his 15 month old baby. They are awesome. We found out that he used to be in the top 3 real estate people in New Zealand and that his life kind of crashed and he is a former drug addict and dealer and he is looking to be forgiven, which is where baptism comes in, and they are so keen to read the Book of Mormon. They are totally going to be baptized! We also found this guy named T who lives with his parents. We don't know much about him because we didn't have too long to talk to him. But everything is going well. I found out that I will be in this area most likely for 6 months because I will be trained for my first 12 weeks and then I train someone for 12 weeks. I'm way excited because we are in a choice area. Our goal for November is to save 8 souls at least. Oh and I remembered that I don't have any sweatshirts here either and everything here is really expensive. So could you also send a USB to me and I'll send it back to you with pictures and then we can just do it that way. Oh and Mom, Sister Lekias said that there isn't a blog right now because that takes a lot of time and she hasn't had time but s is thinking she is going to make one so she will email you when she does make one. Also, if you do send a package with a sweatshirt and a usb could you also send a few good cereals because there is only corn flakes here. Other than all that, I love it here. It's awesome. We've gone over to a few member's houses for dinners and I've gotten to experience some interesting food. They have this pasta stuff they call Chop Sui? and its pretty good, but it doesn't look that good. Also they have this one thing that is like a potato that called Taro. It tastes a bit like a potatoe too. And if you haven't noticed I'm picking up the lingo pretty well. Kia Ora means Hello and Thank you. Bench is counter. Honest is like saying Seriously? Ofa Atu means Love you.

Ofa Atu,

Elder Lee



Kia Ora,

I forgot to tell you all that I'm in an area called Henderson in the West Harbour ward. My companion's name is Elder Whaanga (all "wh"s here are pronounced as "f" except for like what and stuff like that but for names and stuff its pronounced as an f). My companion is awesome. He is so good at Preaching By the Way, and teaching lessons. I'm going to enjoy this next 3 months with him.

(Mom was bad and forgot they were 17 hours ahead of us so was sending him an email at the same time he sent his to me, so this is reply to my late email)

Kia Ora,

I got it! Everything is great so far. I haven't actually been to my ward yet because we watched General Conference this last weekend. So yes I've seen it twice. And my trainer is so good. I just sent you and email about that actually. And yes being a missionary is awesome. I don't have to worry about anything. I love it over here. Although New Zealand has it's beautiful side it also has another side that you wouldn't expect. It's got great people who are very friendly and open to listening even if they are not interested but all the buildings look very run down at times. I love it all though

Ofa Atu,

Elder Lee

Email from President Lekias

7A Auburn Street

Takapuna

North Shore City 0622

New Zealand

Phone: 64 9 485 3150

Fax: 64 9 485 3159

2017318@ldschurch.org







6th October 2011





Dear Brother and Sister Lee,
It was a great pleasure to welcome your son, Elder Lee, to the New Zealand Auckland Mission. He arrived in good health, ready to begin his missionary labours with a people who are full of faith and love. He is a credit to you both and I appreciate the privilege of having him here in the mission.
Elder Lee’s new companion is Elder Whaanga, his trainer who will help your son adjust to missionary life. They have been assigned to work in the Henderson area. We are confident that as they work diligently together that the Lord will bless them and they will experience the joy of seeing our Heavenly Father’s children progress towards baptism in His church.
Your son will look forward to your weekly letters of encouragement and support. Monday is his preparation day and the time allocated to him to write emails home to you. All mailed letters should be sent to the Mission Office (see address above).
Thank you for all you have done to prepare your son for his mission. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns. Sister Lekias and I will do everything in our power to help him have a wonderful and productive mission. We pray the Lord will bless and sustain you in his absence.
Sincerely yours,

President Paul N. Lekias

New Zealand Auckland Mission

Email dated 9/28/11

Hey everyone,

This week has been great. First I want to say that last week we had a devotional that I forgot to tell you all about. Russell M. Nelson came and spoke to us. It was so cool. Yesterday's devotional we heard from Ron Clark from the First Quorum of the Seventy. I love it here. My companion are still getting along great. We have been doing a lot of teaching. This includes teaching the "investigators" that we have and the new districts that come in every week. Our investigators are more often then not members who are acting. As the Zone Leaders though my companion, Elder Rawlinson, and I have been teaching new districts as they came in and getting to know the districts that we have. Each zone has 3 districts and each district has about 10-12 people. Each week we have to sign the district that is leaving our and the next day we have to teach the new district about the MTC. It was a little weird this last week because we didn't know that much because we had only been here for a week. It's great getting to know all of them. We have so many responsibilities. It's good work though. It's definitely preparing me. Oh and little interesting fact. Since I've been here at the MTC, I've gained 10 lbs. I'm now about 150 lbs. I'm so happy. It's crazy to think that I'll be in New Zealand in a week from today. Time flies here. It doesn't feel like I've been here for 2 weeks already, but I'm so glad that I don't have to be here for 8 or 12 weeks. I would go crazy. We leave for New Zealand on Monday and we have a lay over in LAX for 5 hrs. We don't even get to New Zealand until Wednesday. It's a bit sad because I'm going to miss everyone I've met. My district is awesome. We are all going to Australia and New Zealand. 3 of us are going to Auckland, New Zealand and 4 are going to Melbourne, Australia and 5 are going to Perth, Australia. We are all best friends now. Mom: My companion doesn't have a blog that he knows about. Also, I can't really tell anyone about the blog because I don't know any emails besides these 3 so if you could go onto my facebook and just put it up there that would be great. And yes I did forget a few things like my flip flops, my scarf, and my jacket. If you could send those to me that would be great. I'm not sure when you want to send them though because I leave on Monday and the price to send packages to New Zealand will be really high, but if you send it here you would need to do like next day shipping. Also, just to let you know, since I've been here I've gotten a pocket hymn book and a journal and something else that I can't remember right now. Everyone: I love you all. Thank you for writing.

Love,
Elder Lee

E-mail dated 9/21/11

Hey Mom and Dad,

I'm doing great. My companion and I are still getting along great and we are working hard. We've been made Zone Leaders over 3 districts. It's kind of crazy but a lot of fun. I love my district. They are great. We all have so much fun. They are hilarious. My companion and I have been teaching 4 investigators. They are all paid actors but it is very realistic. One of the people we have been teaching doesn't believe in God. In fact he says, "I know there is no God." It's so hard. It can be a bit frustrating at times but that's life. I don't worry about it though because I always know that I'm learning and that the Spirit is the real teacher. Another one of the people we are teaching is a nonmember that lives in Utah and he loves the outdoors. We've commited him to reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church with us. We also got our less-active investigator to commit to reading and praying about the Book of Mormon and coming to church on Sunday. I think we're doing pretty good. We're pretty excited. We are pretty good at teaching the restoration now. We're still working on the Plan of Salvation but we had the opportunity to go to the temple today and do an endowment session. It was great it definitely helped me understand how to teach the Plan of Salvation better. As I wrote in the letter Wednesday is our P-day and I'm scheduled to leave for New Zealand on Oct 3 so only a week and a half left in the MTC. The days feel like weeks but the weeks feel like days. It's crazy, but I'm way excited. Tell everyone to write letters because it feels so good to get them. And be sure to send this email to everyone else too because I don't have any email addresses memorized. My mailing address is in the letter that I sent. Let me know if you have any questions.
Love you all,

Elder Lee

Hey you can also use Dear Elder to write me letters so that I can get them the same day. Ask Gram if you want to know more. I only have like 30 minutes to write emails but I can write more i letters. Any way, got to go.

Love you,

Elder Lee

First letter from MTC (hand written)

Dear Mom & Dad,
I'm doing great so far. The MTC is pretty awesome. I'm pretty busy all day going to classes and means and personal study sessions. It's great though. I have an awesome companion. His name is Elder Brian Rawlinson. He's a big guy. He's from Tulsa Oklahoma and he is bin football. He has a full scholarship at BYU to play for them. He is also going to the Auckland New Zealand Mission. We are both way excited to get out in the field and we seem to be on the same page about everything, especially the Gospel. Oh, and the food is pretty good so far. The MTC is an all around great place. I leave the MTC October 3, or at least that is the planned date. It'll be here pretty soon. I just found out also that my companion is my senior companion. It's a little funny because he isn't even 19 yet but that's OK. While we are here we get to teach these investigators in role plays. I'm way excited. I think Elder Rawlinson and I are going to be great. Also I only have a limited time (30 minutes) on the computer for emails. My P-day is on Wed.

Love, Elder Lee

Pictures at the MTC

On the way to the MTC


Waiting in line to enter the MTC, took about 30 minutes from this point.


Finally there!!


Elder Lee with his Uncle David who drove him from the airport to the MTC. Thanks David!! (Mom's brother)


Entering the MTC. How exciting!!

Kyle Enters The MTC (Missionary Training Center)

Kyle left for the MTC on 9/14/11. He had to be at the airport by 5:40 am. He flew directly to Salt Lake and was picked up at the airport by my brother David. He then took him to the store for a couple items and then to lunch at The Cheesecake Factory and then to the MTC. Once I receive those pictures I will post them. We are all excited for him. This is the mission he wanted to go to. I know he will be a good missionary and can't wait to start receiving his letters to see how much his testimony grows.